By LeRoy Cook
21 September 2020
Fall is the best time of the year for flying, normally encouraging lots of aviation activity. The year 2020 is not normal, in lots of ways. After historic surges over the last few years, we now have an economy that’s reeling from restrictions imposed by an invading virus. Flying numbers are down, in both personal and commercial sectors. And then nature ganged up on us with lightning-sparked fires in the tinderbox of the Western states, smoking up the summer skies, and some extra hurricane activity in the South and East threatened even the autumn season. This year is not one to wish repeating.
The flying-in traffic at Butler this week varied from one of Kingsley’s little Piper Pawnee sprayplanes, applying organic treatments to local crops, to a couple of Van’s RV homebuilts, an RV-8 and an RV-6. I saw a UCM-based Cessna Skyhawk, a UH-60 Blackhawk Army Guard helicopter, and a Piper J-3 Cub.
From the local fleet, Brandt Hall flew his KIS Cruiser homebuilt, Roy Conley exercised his experimental gyroplane, I made a Higginsville run in a Cessna 150, and we dodged a few Hurricane Sandy-induced showers on a flight from Tulsa to Springfield in the Cessna Skyhawk. In the waning days of its season, SkyDive KC had a good weekend of jump runs, sorely needed to make up for some of the bad weather times.
We came across a sad sight last week at Tulsa’s International airport, where American Airlines has a major base. Advised by NOTAM that the east-west runway at TUL was closed, we saw why; the east end was full of parked airliners, idled by the Covid-reduced traffic. And when we were cleared to taxi to Tulsair, our favorite parking spot on the general aviation side, we had to thread our way past a ramp filled with American Boeing 737’s, wingtip to wingtip. The airline’s paying storage charges for using what is usually a vacant acreage of concrete, and its leasing fees are on-going. What a mess.
Our weekly brain-teaser from last time wanted to know why aircraft registration number N16020 can never be used on a U.S. airplane. It’s because that number was assigned to Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra, lost in the South Pacific in 1937, retired in her honor. For next week, let us know what kind of airplane first flew airmail from the North American continent to Europe, airport to airport. As usual, you can send your answer to kochhaus1@gmail.com
